I was reading about WoW’s high quality starting areas over at We Fly Spitfires and it reminded me of how much I liked the racial lore quests in Freemarch, and how sad I am that said racial lore quests vanish never to be mentioned again after the starter area is behind you.

That’s a real lost opportunity, critics have stated that Rift’s races are forgettable and lack differentiation. Well those racial quests hinted at something more than skin deep. As a roleplayer playing on Argent (PVE-RP server) I was excited to learn more about the Kelari race’s exile and struggle for survival. It comes as a great disappointment to have played through Stonefield, Scarlet Gorge, Scarwood Reach, Moonshade Highlands and now Iron Pine Peaks and to not find one single Kelari with a story about our race worth hearing.

Adding new whole starter zones for the races isn’t going to happen anytime soon either. So the easiest way to give the races some more shine is to add epic ‘story’ quest chains, in all areas I would suggest. These would offer good rewards at the end of each zone with perhaps some nice very visible costume piece or armour piece that is styled after that races artwork.

I suppose that the Hammerknell patch might have brought some Dwarven lore to the game, though I’m not certain from a defiant point of view what that might be. I do think if we will have to wait for each race to be given this generic, faction-neutral treatment then the results will be bland. Trion should risk offending some people and add content for each race, that is only for members of that race so that there is something to do that isn’t as generic.

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2 Responses to Racial lore needed

i think you’ll find your Kelari story in Shimmersand (not certain, i don’t have a Defiant-side character): each race gets a zone, essentially: Droughtlands and the Eth, Stillmoor and the Mathosians, Silverwood and the High Elves, Moonshade and the Dwarves (not sure about the Bahmi); so I’m pretty sure you’ll find the Kelari story in Shimmersand.

Doh, typical with only a 50-50 chance of choosing the right leveling path I missed the one with Kelari stuff. Still I do think there’s too much of a gap in-between those early stories and the follow-ups. I’ll have to go and have a look at what I missed when I’m done leveling I suppose. Even if there was only one NPC racial plot line per area per race it still would make a big difference to the feeling of continuity. Makes me almost want to redo the Kelari racial on an alt to see if there was actually a big *go to Droughtlands* hint at the end. If not then that’s just silly.